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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoPrologisA rendering of the 770,000-square-foot distribution center being built by Paul Hemmer Co. in Etna Township. Construction will be finished in September.

The construction of distribution centers has picked up in central Ohio, a sure sign that goods
and the economy are moving in the right direction.

“What’s happening is, all the large, Class A (distribution) buildings have been absorbed,” said
Paul Hemmer, president of the Paul Hemmer Co., a Fort Mitchell, Ky.-based company that specializes
in building distribution centers, factories and medical buildings.

“People are continuing to expand their businesses, and because there aren’t existing
distribution buildings available, they’re building new ones.”

Hemmer is building a 770,000-square-foot distribution center in Etna Township, Licking County,
for Prologis, one of the country’s largest developers and operators of industrial real estate. The
San Francisco-based company will lease the massive space to SpeedFC, which provides e-commerce
service to retail customers.

SpeedFC recently received a state tax credit valued at up to $489,595 if it adds 250 jobs and
retains 242 current positions in Etna Township.

The central Ohio location “enables us to continue meeting our customers’ growing demands by
providing high accessibility to the U.S. and Canada populations,” said SpeedFC President Jeff
Zisk.

The building is going up quickly. Construction started in March and will be finished in
September, Hemmer said.

That timetable is made possible by a fast-track construction schedule that includes pre-cast
concrete walls that are poured off-site and delivered to Etna Township.

“Hemmer’s high quality of work and ability to deliver on time and on budget were instrumental in
our decision to work with them,” Brian March, Prologis senior vice president, said in a
statement.

The pre-cast walls, Hemmer said, also take weather factors such as rain and cold out of the
equation and speed up the building process.

“The walls are complete, the structural steel is about a third of the way done, and we’ll start
the roofing (this) week,” Hemmer said.

Much of Hemmer’s work is centered in and around Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky.

“We’re excited the economy is starting to rebound in our areas of focus, and I’m knocking on
wood that this continues for a bit,” Hemmer said.

Construction picks up

April was a good month for the construction industry, according to a report from McGraw Hill
Construction.

Contracts for future construction signed during the month in the Columbus metropolitan area
totaled $160.6 million, a 75 percent increase from April 2012. For the first four months of the
year, these future contracts added up to

$522.5 million, an11 percent increase over the same period in 2012.

The overall Ohio numbers were solid, but not as strong as in Columbus.

Future contracts in April added up to$1.2 billion, an 11 percent increase over the April 2012
total. For the first four months of this year, the total was $3.5 billion, a 7 percent
increase.

Odds and ends

“The Homewood Suites by Hilton is scheduled to open mid-August of this year, with the mixed-use
building opening around Oct. 1,” Bob Hoying wrote in an email.

The mixed-use building will have 13,000 square feet of retail space and a similar amount of
office space, 108 residential units and a 300-space parking structure.

• The renovation of the historic Atlas Building at 8 E. Long St. is set to start in July, said
Joel Lilly of Schiff Capital Group, the owner of the building. The project will add marble lobbies,
detail stonework and turn the office space in the 12-story building into residential units.

• Turner Construction began work on the Genesis Medical Center in Zanesville on May 11. The
project will add a new patient center to the renovated Bethesda Hospital at the site, as well as a
free-standing cancer center and a medical office building. Construction costs are expected to be
$160 million, with an additional $40 million for new medical equipment and furnishings.